Blue Rainbow Hotel

[dagalerself]

I have recently returned from Içmeler, Turkey after a week staying at the Blue Rainbow Hotel.
Arrival; ‘Içmeler Online’ provided the transfer from Dalaman. It was a very comfortable 1hr and 15min journey with a complimentary bottle of water. Once in the resort of Içmeler we did a quick drop off at another hotel and then too ours. We were welcomed by the manager as everyone was. He copied our passport details to register us as ‘arrived’ and placed a blue wrist band on which ever wrist we desired. The reception area was really basic colours and could have done with a lick of paint to freshen it up, however was really traditional and lovely to see other than the modern colours and designs around now. He then placed us in a lift with our luggage and met us up at our room on the 1st floor.

Room; He showed us how the electric’s worked with the key. The room was basic with twin beds (which the maid made into a double two days into the holiday), a bedside table and telephone, table and mirror, fridge, TV and shoe rack, built in wardrobe and air-con. The room’s furnishings were a mustard yellow colour which we got used too. Along the top of the wall was a paper boarder of flowers, apart from being dated it was falling down; to keep it up was masking tape. However the room was really clean, as was the bathroom. The bathroom was on the small side and with two people in it, really cramped, but really lovely and functional. When the shower broke we called downstairs and a mechanic was sent straight up, he fixed it and then replaced the shower head which made the shower even more powerful. The balcony which was a decent size, with two chairs and table and washing line, overlooked the ‘Istanbul’ and ‘Mr Cook’ restaurant.

Location; About 1 min walk from the centre of town and not even that too the beach.
The Içmeler Online representative was at the hotel the next day; she was lovely, informative and really helpful. We booked a Turkish Bath with her there and then for £5 which was valid any time in the holiday.

Restaurant; was lovely, you could eat in or out, serve yourself drinks and any cold food. Chef served the soup and hot food. Cold food was anything from salad, Turkish meze, a pasta dish, breakfast and pudding. Hot food mainly consisted of soup, rice or pasta dish, chips or potatoes marinated in a sauce, chicken or fish dish and a beef dish. It was basic but some nights really nice. The pudding was all very sweet with fruit salad and melon for the ‘not fussed about cake’ people. The soup was really nice and differed in flavour every day, everyone had a different opinion some saying it was too watery.

The pool; limited sunbeds for the amount of guests, they do have a spec on the beach but drinks are extra. The pool was lovely and clean, however the shallow end wasn’t shallow. I’m 5ft 7in and the water came up to my neck when stood flat footed on the floor. If you walked towards the deep end the floor just dropped away and got very deep, very quickly.
The pool bar was all ways open, self-service for some of the drinks and then a request for the others. At 16:15 it was ‘Afternoon tea and cookies’ which was Tea that wasn’t English tea and marble cake and two different types of Turkish biscuit.

The staff had an obvious language barrier in some areas, waiters and waitress’ not very talkative but all very polite. Chef made an effort to come out of the kitchen during service and say hello. The manager was very helpful and lovely. I fell ill half way through the holiday, when we requested a doctor he was very nice and brought me some water while we waited. When I returned from the hospital 6 hours later he was still there so that he could see me, he’d been phoning up the hospital every hour to check on how I was and made a list of what they had given me while I was there and how they had treated me so that if I didn’t understand he could explain, which he did. It was lovely and such a kind thought.

The bits and bobs; The safe for a week is £5, and at night as it’s almost at the centre of town it’s quite loud with the bars playing their music, it goes off every night at midnight but it was a shock the first night while there.